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Effects of Armed Conflicts

Armed violence can be described
as: “the intentional use of illegitimate
force (actual or threatened) with arms or explosives, against a person, group,
community or state, which undermines people centred security and/or sustainable
development.”

The International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) proposed a general definition of
international armed conflict. In the Tadic case, the Tribunal stated that
"an armed conflict exists whenever
there is a resort to armed force between States".

Terms such as ‘civil wars’ and
‘ethnic conflict’ quickly came into use in the 1990s as shorthand descriptors
for the armed conflicts in Africa, Asia and Europe. Such terms reinforced the
common view that these were mainly intra-state affairs that were triggered and
fuelled by virulent ethno-nationalism. However, in most cases, these conflicts
involved regional actors and trans-border activities, and were driven by a mix
of factors and not simply ethnic difference.